Virtual Santa on the Farm

Tuesday, 8 December 2020 at 17:36

Everyone is invited to tune in on Sunday December 20th for a virtual Santa on the Farm experience at the Van Roekel Holstein Dairy farm near Ingersoll.

INGERSOLL - Santa on the farm is going virtual this year for 2020.

For the past four years the Van Roekel Holstein Dairy farm near Ingersoll has opened up their family farm to allow families to get a picture with Santa. Each year they collect donations for the Children's Aid Society and the Children's Health Foundation in London. Santa Ron visits the farm every year and has posed for hundreds of photo's with happy children at the farm.

The family wanted to keep the tradition going in spite of COVID-19. Obviously pictures with Santa will not be possible this year, so instead they are hosting a virtual visit with Santa at the farm. Crystal Van Roekel explains what will happen with the virtual format this year.

"We decided to just showcase some of the animals the kids would come out and see normally for pictures with Santa. Provide them an update on how the animals are doing and we will have our elves here as well. Santa will be reading the kids a bed time story and we will have a chat with him and Mrs. Claus. It will be an informal setting and we are hoping when people pop on the Facebook Live, they will comment and Santa can give some shoutouts as we are going."

Van Roekel says the show might run 10 minutes, it could run 20 minutes, it will depend on the audience interaction. Van Roekel says they have really enjoyed opening up their farm to the public in the past and they always raised money for charity.

"We had a minimum donation to come to the event and we would have a petting zoo set up and the kids would be able to get their pictures taken with the animals as well as Santa. We had face painting and cookies and a corn bin for the kids to play in. It was basically a Christmas Adventure Farm that we would open up for an afternoon. We would donate to Sick Kids and the Children's Aid Society."

This year they are asking everyone to donate to the Children's Hospital and the Embro Splash Pad. The Santa on the Farm Virtual experience will happen Sunday December 20th on Facebook Live at 6:30 pm. You can tune in and find more updates on the Van Roekel Facebook page here.